The Islanders Got Hilariously Outshot And Still Won

The Montreal Canadiens got 56 shots on goal against goalie Thomas Greiss and the New York Islanders. On the defensive end, they only gave up 24 shots. Somehow, they still couldn’t win, as a John Tavares overtime goal and a truly dreadful performance from Carey Price handed Montreal a 5-4 loss in ridiculous fashion.

New York’s Greiss gave up four goals, and rarely does that ever signal a great night for a goaltender, but his game was a showcase of endurance, battling through failures, bad bounces, and overmatched defenders to weather a Canadien comeback and pull out a victory. Greiss’s 52 saves were the second most for any goalie this year, behind Colorado’s Semyon Varlamov, who got 57 in a 5-3 win against Carolina back in November.

Price, meanwhile can’t be blamed for every Islander score, particularly a shorthanded goal from Tavares, but when a goalie’s skaters outshoot the other team by 32, it’s on the netminder if the team can’t win. The bottom line, though, is that this was an extraordinarily entertaining (and weird) hockey game, with two very flawed teams fighting to determine who would falter first. For everyone except the coaches, it’d be fun to see even more of these.